My Journey

I know firsthand how hard digestive conditions can be. I’ve been living with Crohn’s disease for over 20 years.

When I was first diagnosed, I thought I could just power through it. I was in denial and refused to change my life. Unsurprisingly, in my fight against reality, reality won. I spiraled down until I hit rock bottom. I was scared and I realized that if I wanted a life that was livable I had to start making real changes.

So I began searching for answers. I left no stone unturned. New specialists, medications, alternative therapies, supplements, herbs, diets, I tried it all. Slowly, through years of trial and error, I pieced together a plan that worked.

But it wasn’t until many years later, well into my career as a psychologist, that I came across a field called psychogastroenterology (or GI psychology for short). It was the part of my care I didn’t know was missing, an approach built on how the gut and brain affect each other. It completed the picture and gave me more understanding of my condition and more control over managing it.

Discovering GI psychology was a turning point. It let me bring my personal experience and my professional life together. Thanks to decades of research in the field, I learned how the gut and brain affect each other and why care that addresses both helps so many people. And yet few people have heard of GI psychology, including many in the medical community.